Open Source Vibrotactile Haptics Platform for On-Body Applications | Hacker News Reader

Open Source Vibrotactile Haptics Platform for On-Body Applications

ai.googleblog.com

74 pointsshard32 comments

I built something like this when I was in college for a project based course. I used 8 small vibration motors and made a strap you could wrap around you leg. I connected it to a compass and had the north facing motor always vibrate slightly. My plan was to use it while riding my motorcycle to give me an ever present sense of direction.

How well did it work? I’ve often thought of doing this, but never had the time. In addition to north I also thought about having it point to an arbitrary location or to another person’s location. The latter could be used for hunter safety, etc.

Well, this certainly went in a direction I was not anticipating...

I also did this years ago. There used to be a kit you could buy. It had a compass IC and a ring of vibration motors. The sensation always pointed north.

I wore it around my ankle non-stop for a while, only taking it off when sleeping. I did some long hikes with it, etc. I could roughly tell where's north if I consciously thought about it, but the "ever present sense of direction" never really happened as far as I can tell.

Maybe the biggest realization that came from using it was that some roads in the city were actually slightly curving while I previously considered them relatively straight (I could tell from the compass direction changing while traveling along them). It's obvious when looking at the map, but not so much when being there.

I got it all working, but the electronics were on a breadboard so I never got to the state of being able to wear it for a long time while riding my bike.

I was surprised with how it felt though. I programed it to ramp down one motor and ramp up the next as you rotated and my brain was able to interpret that is a smooth movement of the vibration sensation.

Thought this was gonna be about teledildonics. Slightly disappointed. Then again, I get screwed enough by Google as it is.

For a more substantive conversation: what are some applications for this aside from what is mentioned, which seem like sort of obvious examples.

Backing it off from teledildonics (which I could write you a novel about and definitely have opinions on but we'll just wait until someone posts https://buttplug.io to the front page again before I write pages of comments on that heh), I'm working on a system similar to this for "affective haptics" in social VR.

I've built a simple system (currently ERM, I wanna try LRA but haven't had time to work everything out yet) for head/ear haptics, basically so people can feel head/ear pets in VR. It's a super common intimate gesture is places like VRChat.

There's a small demo video here:

https://youtu.be/muh0o8ser8E?t=423

I was planning on building pretty much exactly what this system is, and I'm pretty happy someone else has done it because so far I've not had time to even start board layout yet. Sourcing parts for this may still be an issue, because haptic drivers are definitely a victim of the supply chain crunch lately.

Anyways, having a simple way to build and control haptic signals will allow people to experiment, which is really what we need. Touch and social contexts are inextricably linked, but figuring out which contexts would make for good products is an on-going problem, and has left a wasteland of failed crowdfunding campaigns.

But, all that said, yes this would also be perfect for teledildonics research and I'll probably use it for that too.

Relax and tighten, Kyle!

Relax and Tighten — A Haptics-based Approach to Simulate Sphincter Tone Assessment, presented at Asia Haptics 2016 (might be considered NSFW by some, or work related by others):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grhmHvthag8

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-4157-0_...

http://docplayer.net/199792802-Relax-and-tighten-a-haptics-b...

DiRECT: we put the "finger" into "digital"!

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/engagement-and-simulation-science...

Good golly, they've even gamified it:

>+ Public Engagement: Haptics-enabled Palpation Racing Game at the Big Bang Festival. London (2012). (Appendix E)

You should check out some of the other videos from Asia Haptics 2016, like the "Prostate Tumor Palpation Simulator Based on Pneumatic and Augmented Haptics", "Synesthesia Suit", "Rubber Hand Illusion Using Tactile Projector ", "Reconsideration of Ouija Board Motion in Terms of Haptics Illusions", and also Hiroo Iwata's classic "3DOF Multitouch Haptic Interface with Movable Touchscreen".

I can't imagine how much fun the afterparties of that conference must have been.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8qMmIgmWhnQBeABjGlzGbg/vid...

I especially love this one (totally safe for work), which is genius:

3DOF Multitouch Haptic Interface with Movable Touchscreen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCZPmj7NtSQ

>Shun Takanaka, Hiroaki Yano, Hiroo Iwata, Presented at AsiaHaptics2016. This paper reports on the development of a multitouch haptic interface equipped with a movable touchscreen. When the relative position of two of a user’s fingertips is fixed on a touchscreen, the fingers can be considered a hand-shaped rigid object. In such situations, a reaction force can be exerted on each finger using a three degrees of freedom (3DOF) haptic interface. In this study, a prototype 3DOF haptic interface system comprising a touchscreen, a 6-axis force sensor, an X-Y stage, and a capstan drive system was developed. The developed system estimates the input force from fingers using sensor data and each finger’s position. Further, the system generates reaction forces from virtual objects to the user’s fingertips by controlling the static frictional force between each of the user’s fingertips and the screen. The system enables users to perceive the shape of two-dimensional virtual objects displayed on the screen and translate/rotate them with their fingers. Moreover, users can deform elastic virtual objects, and feel their rigidity.

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-4157-0_...

I'm a huge fan of Hiroo Iwata's work (described as "the most prolific exhibitor of edgy haptic devices", who proclaims "Taste is the last frontier of virtual reality")! And he has excellent taste.

Check out his "Food Simulator" that Michael Naimark writes about in the "Other Senses (Touch, Smell, Taste, Mind)" section of his "VR / AR Fundamentals" series:

https://michaelnaimark.medium.com/vr-ar-fundamentals-3-other...

>The Food Simulator, Hiroo Iwata, University of Tsukuba, 2003 [illustration]

https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*DDMmiwG-ovLlaJ79YIj3Sw.jp...

>In 2003, the Food Simulator premiered at the Siggraph Tomorrow’s Reality Gallery in the LA Convention Center. Participants were asked to put in their mouth a gauze-covered electro-mechanical device with a thin plastic hose attached. Biting down triggered the device to quickly contract while squirting a food flavored chemical into the participant’s mouth. While many found it “novel” (or worse) virtually no one could make the leap between this device and virtual food. To its credit, the lead inventor, University of Tsukuba professor Hiroo Iwata, is perhaps the most prolific exhibitor of edgy haptic devices.

Food Simulator: Hiroo Iwata, Hiroaki Yano, Tkakahiro Uemura, Tetsuro Moriya, University of Tsukuba

http://icat.vrsj.org/papers/2003/00876_00000.pdf

>Abstract: The Food Simulator is a haptic interface that presents biting force. A taste of food arises from mixture of chemical, auditory, olfactory and haptic sensation. Haptic sensation while eating is a remained problem in taste display. The Food Simulator generates force to the user’s teeth to display food texture. The device is composed of four linkages. The mechanical configuration of the device is designed to fit to the mouth. A force sensor is attached to the end effecter. The Food Simulator generates force according to the force profile captured from a real food. The device is integrated with auditory and chemical display for multimodal sensation in taste.

https://ars.electronica.art/center/en/food-simulator/

Food Simulator demo from VR Lab University of Tsukuba

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqbgwjKnXBo

Here's some more cool Hiroo Iwata stuff -- I hope this gives you some interesting ideas to chew on! ;) :

Hiroo Iwata, Hara Design Institute (Circula Floor: treadmill robot tiles)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipa8D4N2Vf4

Floating Eye installation by Hiroo Iwata : DigInfo (separating vision from the body, probably pretty fun on shrooms during a sunny day outside)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In-M1eVAnYc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJmD1DrSvao

Induced Pulling Sensation by Synthesis of Frequency Component for Voice-Coil Type Vibrators (right up your alley, Kyle!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46DaNqOVDU0

That compares devices from Tactile Labs:

http://tactilelabs.com/

Haptic Interface for Shape and Texture Recognition of Remote Objects by Using a Laser Range Finder (which seems to incorporate a virtual implementation of Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth's "Fing-Longer" technology)

https://futurama.fandom.com/wiki/Fing-Longer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZhAHz7HA3E

Haptic Web (check out the old school Netscape browser running on an SGI!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbh6qeWzdDg

Volflex (a volumetric haptic display, squishy pneumatic balloons, clay with undo/redo)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2GBAjrDAek

Anomalocaris (so creepy I won't even try to describe it)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amzGBQ-s0vo

Development of a Block Machine for Volleyball Attack Training (words can't even...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-VUMU83oEs

More cool VR Lab University of Tsukuba videos:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWdB83ZRmcQRDU0ESk_Q30Q/vid...

Iwata Hiroo:

https://trios.tsukuba.ac.jp/en/researcher/0000001005

Virtual Reality Lab:

https://www.vrlab.esys.tsukuba.ac.jp/

The first thing I thought of was the haptic immersion from Ready Player One. Essentially a way to allow you to "feel" things that are happening to you in a virtual reality environment. You'd need a lot of vibration motors to get good coverage, though, and it'd probably be pretty uncomfortable to wear with current technology.

No matter how many motors you strap to yourself, it's still gonna be vibration. See my other comment in this thread where I list the youtube video, sometimes in VR I'll have > 50 vibrators stuck to myself, and basically I just feel like a big smartphone. In most cases, it's not immersive (though audio reactive haptics for virtual clubs is great), it's just a way to notify me things are happening.

Why is it that the very first thing I thought of was https://github.com/qdot/deldo

That video is a trip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1sXuHnf_lo&ab_channel=PoorL...

"deldo-eugenics-mode and the end of the editor wars" sounds like a Harry Potter sequel that no one asked for.

11 years later, I'm still not sure how I'm ever going to top this.

wait wait i know this one, “with prior enthusiastic and affirmative consent”!

A long time ago I read of a casino cheat who communicated with a partner via a tactile device, IIRC in his shoe. It was really fascinating.

I think this is a very promising area of exploration. I wonder how fast one could train oneself to silently "read" a near-real-time translation, or "hints" about one's surroundings (rather than see them in AR)?

Was it the book "The Eudaemonic Pie": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eudaemonic_Pie

"The book focuses on a group [...] who in the late 1970s and early 1980s designed and employed miniaturized computers, hidden in specially modified platform soled shoes, to help predict the outcome of casino roulette games."

Open Encyclopedia of Haptic Sensations by Category (emotion, duration, usage, etc.)

http://hastiseifi.com/VibViz/

Artem's work is super cool. One of the researchers I follow . Loved the Epidermal Robots. https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3264912 https://scholar.google.de/citations?hl=en&user=dDv1lycAAAAJ&...

Older cool haptics research: I'm currently collaborating with Kouta on some projects. He's one of the researchers behind the techtile toolkit: http://www.techtile.org/en/techtiletoolkit/

Also Malcolm Slaney is a grand master in signal processing, auditory modeling, machine perception, and multimedia analysis. I worked with him and used his "Blip" library at Interval Research Corporation, and he's done all kinds of great stuff with signal processing, tomography, audio, music, voice, speaker identification, perception, etc. His goal is to understand how our brains perceive sound.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Slaney

https://research.google/people/105191/

http://www.slaney.org/malcolm/pubs.html

This would be a great building block for a system that helps blind people navigate while walking.

To add, I recently learned about RGB-D cameras from Computerphile.

https://youtu.be/bRkUGqsz6SI

I had a classmate in University who was strongly visually impaired. That guy did not need help navigating.

His sense of location and direction were incredible. Within a few weeks on campus, he could tell you- accurately- which direction any building was. Even off campus, he had this strong awareness of which direction North was.

Does anyone have theories on how he was able to do this, in a literal sense? I mean, humans quite literally don’t have any organs which can function as a compass (whereas we do, for example, have ones that function as clocks), right? So what signal could his brain have been tracking?

I suspect if you blindfolded him[0], spun him around until he was very dizzy, and then released him somewhere unfamiliar he wouldn't know which way was which. But as long as he had his bearings, he didn't lose them. He couldn't- he needed them to get around.

[0]Visually impaired, not completely blind, so the blindfold would matter in this case.

Reminds me of Daniel Suarez's book "Daemon" (Loki had a haptic vest called a "Third Eye")

Isn’t this basically what baseball players have been using to cheat for the last decade?

As someone who knows nothing about baseball, this sounds interesting but I think it could do with more explanation. Are they used for communicating with the batter?

Correct; the player would wear a receiver somewhere on their body which was used to relay what pitch was upcoming. The Astros got caught banging a trashcan, but my high school English teacher (who published several books on baseball as a huge fan of the sport) used to say that baseball is a sport to see who can cheat the most without getting caught. From what I can tell, the league doesn’t look too hard for it either.

Haptics are such a fascinating and under-productized (except maybe by Apple) segment.

A vest with these would be cool for IRL wargames like laser-tag or AirSoft

Is this what Google Jacquard turned into?

So Google wants to f** you too and collect the data.

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